Penn baseball came into this weekend’s series against Columbia having to win at least two of the three games in order to keep its hopes for a spot in the Ivy League Championship Series (ILCS) alive. Despite putting themselves in a position to win a pair of games, the Quakers came up just short in this feat.

Penn baseball never got its bats going and ended up losing to Delaware 3-1. After scoring at least six runs in each of their last five contests, the Quakers’ bats were stymied by effective pitching and timely defense by the Blue Hens.

After spending the summer at both the Rookie and Class A Short Season levels, Lescher and Bleday have progressed to the Class A Midwest League, while Cousins has not been assigned to a full season team this spring and remains on the Doubleday roster.

Penn baseball trounced La Salle 17-7 in a non-conference showdown at Meiklejohn Stadium on Tuesday afternoon. After finding themselves down 3-0 entering the bottom of the second, the Quakers came alive by scoring a whopping 12 runs in the second frame.

Penn baseball lost its Tuesday road matchup at Monmouth by a score of 3-1. The Red and Blue could not hold their early 1-0 lead, as Monmouth scratched a few runs across in the middle innings to take the victory.

The Quakers bused up to Cambridge, Massachusetts for a typical Ivy Saturday doubleheader against the Harvard Crimson. Reminiscent of their Ivy League opener against Brown, they dropped both Saturday games.

But that’s not what we get in the Ivy League. Instead, we get a more natural conclusion: two teams giving a game their all, a smattering of onlookers highly invested in the result, and an outcome no one wanted – symmetrical, deserved, but at first unsatisfying – because nature doesn’t wait for perfect endings.

Penn baseball’s series against Dartmouth had a little bit of everything. The Red and Blue went 1-1-1 versus the Big Green, losing the lone Saturday matchup 5-4, winning Sunday’s first game 8-7, and tying 4-4 in the finale.

In a 10-inning, two-day thriller, the Red and Blue came up short of advancing to the tournament semifinals, falling victim to a three-run 10th-inning home run by Hawks freshman Cole Stetzar in a 7-4 loss.

In the first round of the Liberty Bell Classic, the Quakers will return to Philly, yet they still will have to wait even longer to make their season debut at Meiklejohn Stadium. The Red and Blue will take on local rival Saint Joseph's on the road on Tuesday afternoon.

The pitching group for the Quakers looks drastically different than it did a year ago, and it has been difficult to get everyone on the same page in terms of consistency. But one player that has been key in providing stable leadership and performance is Kleiman.